The Weather Channel, and every other "real-time" traffic and weather media outlet killed it.

Snow is no longer anticipated with holiday glee. It is dreaded.

It is no longer God's magical blanket, that quilted white cover of peace and quiet that forces us to stop our clocks and reflect from the warmth of our homes. Now it's just one big, snarling inconvenience. A commuter's nightmare, a school-closer, a power outage waiting to happen.

Matt Rainey/The Star-LedgerPedestrian schleps through the snow in Newton.

Snow. Kids sledding? Nope. Cars skidding.

And this is how Friday's very typical winter storm was presented to us. Not like "Walking in a Winter Wonderland," but like a rampaging, howling monster, tracked first by a "Winter Storm Watch," then upgraded to a "Winter Storm Warning."

Here's the point. Clearly, weather information is valuable, for our convenience and safety. But a hysteria has crept into weather reporting that makes us think that unless skies are sunny and temperatures seasonal, nature is our enemy. Storm warnings, heat advisories, flood watches, it's all Armageddon.

Very typical storms -- rain, sleet or snow -- are "tracked" like man-eating animals or serial criminals. And in all the 24/7 storm-tracking, which began Wednesday for yesterday's storm, the words "White Christmas" never came up.

Parents and grandparents everywhere have spent the last few nights in school auditoriums at holiday concerts. One of the staples of these shows is the bouncy "Let it Snow," written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne in 1945. Cahn wrote the lyrics, a celebration of the indoor coziness a blanket of snow can bring.

''Oh the weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,
And since we've no place to go,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!"

"Winter Wonderland," another school concert regular, is a celebration of snowfall beauty and fun. Richard Smith, inspired by a freshly fallen snow in his native Honesdale, Pa., wrote the words in 1934.

''Sleigh bells ring, are you listening,
In the lane, snow is glistening
A beautiful sight,
We're happy tonight.
Walking in a winter wonderland."

Later in the song, the words "to face unafraid, the plans that we made" and "we'll frolic and play, the Eskimo way" say venturing into the snow can be a delightful adventure. Contrast that to yesterday's News 12 Traffic report at around noon. Within a span of one minute, came the adjectives "horrific. . .horrendous. . .horrible." These are not the words of delightful adventure.

They are the words of a nuclear attack.

And what comes next? The stories about how shoveling can lead to heart attacks, about "the thousands without power" as if their frozen bodies will only be recovered after the Ice Age thaw. As if we've never seen, let alone survived, snow before.

But we have and we will. Winter snow comes every year, just like spring rains, and summer heat. And allergy season.

For the most part, our first snow should be embraced, a chance to bundle up to frolic and play and walk in that winter wonderland, or snuggle down, light a fire and "stay inside, stay inside, stay inside."